Embattled sergeant claims Metro personnel left offensive note when searching his home

Metropolitan Police Department Sgt. Kevin Menon has sued his department, claiming that a search warrant executed on his home last week was so broad that it was unconstitutional. Prosecutors have pushed back on his claims that he is being prosecuted vindictively.

Menon, 43, has two pending criminal cases. Police have accused him of illegally detaining people on the Strip and possessing more than 500 sexual images of young girls.

His home was searched March 17 as part of what appears to be an investigation into whether he violated a law prohibiting the recording of a person’s “private area” without their consent, according to records.

Search of home

In the lawsuit, filed Friday, attorneys Dominic Gentile, Vincent Savarese, III, and Austin Barnum requested that a judge quash a search warrant issued March 16 and return the items taken during the resulting search or enter a protective order that would prevent the review of anything covered by attorney-client or marital privilege.

Menon’s attorneys also claim Metro personnel left a note that said, “You are a (expletive) idiot.”

Defense attorney Dominic Gentile said the note was “totally uncalled for.” He wants authorities to take handwriting samples of everyone who entered the house the day of the search, because he believes one of them left that note, he said.

Metro did not respond to a request for comment.

Steve Grammas, president of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, which represents Metro officers, said he’s never heard of Metro leaving a note after conducting a search warrant.

“That’s probably not true but who knows,” he said.

Vindictive prosecution?

Menon’s attorneys said in filings that the timing of the warrant was “conspicuous,” given that Menon made claims of “vindictive investigations, searches, seizures and prosecutions” days in documents filed days before it was executed.

Robert Draskovich, Menon’s lawyer in the child sexual abuse material case, previously said his client was “deeply concerned” that the search was “retaliatory in nature.”

Menon has said he was trying to fight a “culture of racism and excessive force” at Metro. Police have said the opposite, that he “was targeting persons of color for illegal arrests.”

In an Monday opposition to a motion to dismiss filed by Menon, Chief Deputy District Attorney Nicholas Portz fired back at Menon’s counter-narrative, saying Menon’s “illegal arrests of innocent civilians on the Strip that were submitted to the DA’s office for prosecution would constitute the very conduct he now complains of in his motion.”

“Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss is rife with misstatements, misrepresentations, and outright falsehoods, all aimed at transforming the legitimate prosecution of his blatant criminal conduct into a baseless claim of persecution,” Portz wrote. “His motion lacks any legal merit and appears designed to distract from the core issues, presenting irrelevant and inadmissible facts unrelated to his criminal conduct.”

In response to the claims the motion to dismiss misrepresented the situation, Gentile said, “Let’s have an evidentiary hearing.”

Menon’s attorneys have said he filed complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Nevada attorney general’s office.

Portz alleged Menon used complaints strategically.

“It is evident that Defendant’s standard practice is to file such complaints in response to investigations into his own misconduct,” he wrote.

He added: “An investigation that predates a complaint cannot, by definition, be retaliatory.”

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.